Are you using material from any source that is relevant to your topic? If yes, you need to check it again. Simply writing relevant data is not everything. But its credibility matters a lot as well. If you’re using material from non-credible sources, it wouldn’t be a good approach. It does not matter how much effort you have made. And it won’t even matter how much time you’ve spent. The only thing that matters is the quality of material, and the credibility of it. For this, you have to check each resource. Evaluation of information sources does not only increase credibility. But it also helps you in developing critical thinking aspects. While evaluating information sources, you check the accuracy of material as well.
Through this, you get to know about different credible authors too. At the start of writing field, you may have to spend lots of time in it. But once you get the exact criteria for evaluating information resources, it’s easy. This is because it becomes easier to manage things later on. The time has gone when people used to read many books. Now it is a digital era. Here everything is easy to manage. You only have to follow the criteria to complete a task. Let’s discuss what should be the criteria for evaluating information resources. These criteria are mentioned below;
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Credibility
The very first criterion for evaluation of information sources is that of credibility. For this, you have to check the past work of an author. You have to see if he is a credible writer or not. You should also check if the given logics are fine or not. For credibility of the author and his work, academic background matters a lot. The more publications he has, the more he will be credible. Another important thing is to check if the given arguments are well-cited, or not. In writing, proper citation of facts matters a lot.
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Bias
The second criterion for evaluation of information sources is to ensure that the content is not biased at all. This is identifiable through deep analysis. For this, you have to see if there is any planned point of view. If the content is supporting one side of an argument, it will affect your results. Biased sources are not considered good ones either, so they should be avoided.
Good writers always go for unbiased sources. It would help if you always went for logical support. And for logical support, you have to add all the relevant facts. Do not go for selective ones. Sometimes financial involvement becomes the reason for biased content. For example, the sites are paid. So the writer takes most of the material from selective sites. The best solution here is to go for free sites. The internet is full of such websites where you can get free information. You only have to spend some time to find out credible sites that are free of cost.
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Precision
For the precision of content, you have to see if the author has righteously supported facts, or not. According to the dissertation writing services firm, precision is the third criterion for evaluation of information sources. If you’ve added any claim in your document, you need to ensure its supporting evidence. Evaluation of information sources is not a big task. At the very start, it may not look easy. But once you grasp the criteria needed to evaluate information sources, it becomes way easier.
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In short, precision helps in ensuring you worth within the market. Without precise information, you will lose your credibility soon. Precision in writing is not ignorable at all. Some writers support their facts, and they think that they’ve added relevant data. But they do not bother to check the data’s precision. Any little error in the data can make it doubtful. As a result, your efforts don’t matter either (Stover and Mabry, 2020). So if you find anything doubtful during the evaluation of information sources, you should omit that.
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Applicability
The applicability of material shows the worth of a research. Hence in the evaluation of information sources, you have to check the information’s applicability. At the start of research, a writer has to explore the data. And then he should come up with more information. After that, the main task is to sort out data. And this sorted data should fall under the relevance of your topic.
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Target Audience
It is very important to identify the targeted audience. For evaluation of information sources, you have to see the purpose of writing. And then you have to see if your audience has the same as authors or not. For example, the information from any source is for nutritionists. And your target is to hit the people who are conscious about their diet. If it looks similar, you can go for that source.
